Voges storms into world's top 10 batsmen

Western Australian the big winner from latest update to ICC player rankings that saw Usman Khawaja, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all make gains

Martin Smith
16 February 2016

Usman Khawaja and Adam Voges, Australia's batting stars from the first Test against New Zealand, have been rewarded with career-high positions on the International Cricket Council's latest Test player rankings.

Voges, who scored 239 against the Black Caps in Wellington, moved up 37 points in the latest rankings to sit in ninth position, joining fellow Australians Steve Smith (first) and David Warner (fifth) in the top 10.

Khawaja, whose 140 against NZ was his fourth century from his past six Test innings, jumped 10 places to a career-high 27th position.

Australia's bowlers also enjoyed improved positions after a strong showing at the Basin Reserve; Josh Hazlewood jumped ahead of Black Caps quick Trent Boult into seventh spot, Nathan Lyon also moved up one spot to be 13th while Mitchell Marsh moved up two positions to 47th. Peter Siddle remains in 15th position.

KZ star batsman Kane Williamson dropped one spot to third in the batting rankings, with England's Joe Root taking sole ownership of second spot.

England's Stuart Broad maintained top position on the bowling rankings ahead of India's Ravi Ashwin and Pakistan spinner Yasir Shah, who is currently serving a three-month ban for a doping offence.

Top 10 Test batsmen

Top 10 Test bowlers

Both Voges and Khawaja could make more significant gains if their golden recent form continues in the second Test against the Black Caps in Christchurch, starting on Saturday.

Voges currently sits on 790 points, just 18 behind Sri Lanka's Angelo Matthews with South Africa's AB de Villiers (818) and Pakistan's Younis Khan (826) just ahead of them.

NZ spinner Mark Craig also picked up one spot to 38th - his best ever position - while Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum fell two positions and will start his final Test match in 21st spot on the batting rankings.

Martin Smith is a writer for cricket.com.au. He previously wrote for Yahoo!7 Sport and Fox Sports.
@martinsmith9994

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Cricket Australia.